LITTLEBLACKDOG.COM

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:26 pm Post subject: WTB PCI Video Card

Does anyone have a PCI video card they can let go of for cheap? My landlady has a cheap Compaq (never buy computers at Wal-Mart). It has a 2.6GHz Celeron, 256 DDR PC2800 SDRAM, and integrated video-64MB shared memory, and it runs very slow.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the 2 best upgrades would be a new vid card and more RAM. It does not have an AGP slot, so I need a PCI card. I want a minimum of 32MB RAM on it and preferably 64MB+.

I an considering this card if no one can hook me up eVGA 128-P1-N309-LX Geforce FX5200 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Low Profile Video Card - Retail

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:31 am Post subject:

runs slow is a bit vague
that is in the video card doesn't usually affect how fast slow the computer is

unless she is 3d gaming, then onboard definitely sux

eBay link

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:06 am Post subject:

Dave Rave wrote:
runs slow is a bit vague
that is in the video card doesn't usually affect how fast slow the computer is

Yup. The memory will be the big boost if she's running win 2K or XP. The hard drive must be chugging away on just about anything she loads, especially with the shared memory for the video.

That, and getting rid of all the viruses and trojans she picked up when she was surfing for porn. Smile

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:38 pm Post subject:

VirtualElvis wrote:
Dave Rave wrote:
runs slow is a bit vague
that is in the video card doesn't usually affect how fast slow the computer is

Yup. The memory will be the big boost if she's running win 2K or XP. The hard drive must be chugging away on just about anything she loads, especially with the shared memory for the video.

That, and getting rid of all the viruses and trojans she picked up when she was surfing for porn.

She don't, but he does. It gets scanned regularly.

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:02 pm Post subject:

256mb ram is just sufficient for win2k to sit there and BOINC
my non HT machine shows 48% ram usage
my HT machine shows 69% ram usage

for web surfing with not much loaded in the systray, it shouldn't be slow
with 32mb chopped for the video ram it would show a diference

check how large the temp int files cache is.
check HDD Health for hte state of the hdd
check taskinfo or similar for mem size and usage
mbm for mobo temps
PC Wizard (cpuid.com) for probably a few other little things that might interest, like taskinfo, how much is loaded in the background

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:57 pm Post subject:

Unless your land lady needs to play 3D games, the graphics card isn't going to help nearly as much as additional memory would. A full 1GB would be a good amount.

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:29 pm Post subject:

More RAM would be your best bet. Taking the onboard video into account, they are running on only 192megs.
As a temporary fix, set her onboard video to 8megs in the BIOS.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:53 am Post subject:

RAM it is. Her idea of great gaming is some of the games from reflexive.com.

I found a matching 256 MB stick at www.directron.com for only $24.50 with free shipping Very Happy

Same brand and model--no compatibility issues.

I'm going to stick with bumping it to 512MB since I am paying for it. I'm willing to blow $24.50 just because I am so sick of it lagging so bad when I work on it, but I'm not willing (or able atm) to spend $100.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:58 am Post subject:

blahpony wrote:
...set her onboard video to 8megs in the BIOS.

Turns out it was already set for 8MB. The BIOS only has 3 options; 512KB, 1MB, and 8MB. PCI interface was selected though, so I set that for onboard. No improvement.

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 6:12 am Post subject:

also make sure the page file is all in one chunk. if not... defrag everything else and then set it to a static size (usually 2 to 2.5 the size of physical ram) and then run page defrag from www.sysinternals.com

http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/PageDefrag.html

that should help reduce the seek time when using the page file